News

The U.S. House Transportation Committee held a hearing on Wednesdayon the status of the Airport Improvement Program. The long-standingprogram delivers a minimum of $150,000 per year to every generalaviation airport. The FAA wants to eliminate that guarantee. Busierairports would get $400,000 every year, airports with 10 to 49aircraft based there would get $100,000, and airports […]

Boeing researchers in Europe plan to conduct manned flight tests this year of a single-engine airplane powered only by a fuel cell and lightweight batteries, the company said on Tuesday. Flight testing will take place in Spain. The demonstrator aircraft is a highly modified Dimona motorglider built by Diamond Aircraft. With a wingspan of 53.5 […]

A roofing project at the FAA tower and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) in Jacksonville, Fla., has driven seven controllers to complain of illness from fumes, including dizziness, nausea and chest pains, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). “The majority of controllers currently are being forced to work six-day weeks and/or 10-hour […]

The NTSB hosted a Runway Safety Forum on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., on the 30th anniversary of the worst aviation accident ever — the runway collision in 1977 between two 747s at Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, that killed 583 people. “We must do something to begin the process of preventing these incursions,” NTSB Chairman […]

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey has been spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill the last few weeks, trying to build support for her new aviation user-fee funding plan. And she’s getting a little tired of all the criticism it’s been getting. “In recent weeks, the rhetoric about our finance reform bill has become very, […]

RotorWay International, based in Chandler, Ariz., has sold more than 900 kits for small homebuilt helicopters, and now is starting development of a certified version. “We see a large opening in the market for a larger, two-seat, 21st-century helicopter with a sensible price,” said CEO Grant Norwitz. The project is underway at RotorWay’s facility in […]

Penton Media this week said its AC-U-KWIK pre-flight airport and FBO guide information is now available on mobile communications devices with Web access, including PDAs and cell phones. Available information includes airport listings, fixed base operator (FBO) information, airport phone numbers, fuel prices and Web sites, weather information and a distance calculator. One-touch dialing and […]

Has it been 30 years already? So it has, according to Jeppesen, since its International Trip Planning Services began operations as part of Lockheed DataPlan. Jeppesen acquired the business in 1989 and expanded it to its current full-service operation, covering the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and India. In addition the company says it has […]

A few months ago, we told you about Bombardier’s 2006 edition of its wildly popular “Safety Standdown,” a four-day seminar focusing on safe business aircraft operation open to operators of all aircraft, not just Bombardier’s. Now comes word the company will export a downsized version of the event to Europe, to be held May 24 […]